Substantial EdTech
Transformative strategies and digital experiences in education
Our clients are innovative funders, educators, and companies focused on the learners of today and tomorrow.
Unlocking the Future of Education
Our Top 3 SXSW EDU Takeaways
We took the stage alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss equity-centered design (ECD) and the importance of leveraging ECD in the development of EdTech products.
Our experience leading sessions, and participating in as many as we physically could, left us eager to share our learnings.
Fast Facts
Services
From research to deployment
Here is how we help:
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Equity-Centered Research & Strategy
Substantial collaborates with partners to reimagine education solutions through equity-centered research that can inform products, systems, and services for all learners. Our approach is participatory, focused on facilitation and alignment between multidisciplinary stakeholders and end users ensuring that learners who have been underserved by technology and services are centered and supported. Our research activities include ethnographic studies, user research, hands-on workshops, and other investigation forms to better understand the design problem.
Program Highlights
- 6-14+ weeks
- Generative co-creation workshops
- Stakeholder and partner workshops
- Product and service strategy
- Research interviews
- Insights & ecosystem mapping
- Reports & positioning briefs
- Strategic roadmapping
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Product Design & Technical Strategy
Substantial takes product ideas and converts them to working software by first identifying and validating needs from both a product requirement and user validation perspective. By working through conceptual design sprints to prototype and validate various ideas and strategies with end-users, we help our clients begin actualizing a product vision and detailed design of feature sets, so they can move confidently into implementation.
Program Highlights
- 2-4 weeks
- Conceptual design sprints
- Concept validation testing
- Product positioning
- Product design and build strategy
- Design and development roadmap
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Product Implementation
Substantial’s product implementation practice is centered around our ability to get our clients' products into users' hands, with features of the highest value to them. Our design and development teams take a participatory approach to designing and developing features with end users so that we continue to ensure we are integrating their feedback, and prioritizing the right features and experiences, at all times. Our team of technologists anchor product security, accessibility, and sustainability of excellent product performance from the beginning. Through an iterative, collaborative process, we launch beautiful, impactful products that are aimed to refresh and engage all users across the education and learning landscape.
Program Highlights
- 10+ weeks
- UX/UI & visual design
- Front and backend software development
- Accessibility and usability testing
- Handoff and maintenance plans